1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotary type toner bottle for containing toner to be supplied to a developing section for developing an electrostatic charge image on the surface of a photoreceptor, and an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is an electrophotographic image forming apparatus having a toner bottle for containing toner which is detachably disposed in a predetermined toner containing section and is adapted to supply toner to a developing section by rotation of the toner bottle.
In such an image forming apparatus, toner fluidity is maintained by adding a fluidity improver such as colloidal silica to toner. However, in recent years, since a particle diameter of toner has become small accompanied with higher-speed and higher-definition in image forming apparatuses, the toner fluidity is lowered so that toner remains in a toner bottle and therefore easily aggregates to each other. Especially, in a toner bottle that includes protrusions (ribs) on the inner wall surface, in which the rib guides and transports the toner contained therein by rotation of the rib, toner moves slowly between ribs and toner is therefore likely to generate heat and aggregate to each other. Hence, in order to suppress the heat generation from toner at the ribs provided inside the toner bottle as much as possible, there is a toner bottle, in which a continuous rib is changed to divided ones.
Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 2006-53446 discloses a toner bottle including a transporting member such as a coil inside. In the toner bottle disclosed in JP-A 2006-53446, since the transporting member is rotated to guide and transport toner contained therein, it is possible to improve the transporting performance of toner in the toner bottle. However, the toner bottle disclosed in JP-A 2006-53446 is constituted such that the transporting member is rotated whereas the bottle main body is not rotated, thus toner is likely to remain in the end or the inner wall surface of the bottle main body. As a result, there is a case where toner aggregation is generated inside the bottle main body.
Further, JP-A 11-305531 (1999) discloses a toner bottle including a softening member near an opening serving as an outlet for discharging toner contained in a bottle main body to a developing section. In the toner bottle disclosed in JP-A 11-305531, when toner fed from the opening aggregates, the aggregated toner is softened by the softening member, thus making it possible to suppress the toner aggregation near the opening. However, in the toner bottle disclosed in JP-A 11-305531, even when the toner aggregation near the opening is suppressed, the toner aggregation over the whole area in a direction in which an axis of rotation of the bottle main body extends can not be suppressed. Further, since one end of the softening member is fixed to the bottle main body, movement of the softening member becomes small and softening effect becomes small even near the opening part. Especially near the end on the fixed side where the softening member is fixed, the aggregated toner can be hardly softened.
FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the structure of a toner bottle 50 in a related art. In addition, FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the structure of a scraping member 70 disposed in the toner bottle 50. The toner bottle 50 includes a bottle main body 60 and the scraping member 70. The bottle main body 60 is formed in a cylindrical shape and has a toner feeding section 61 and a connecting section 62, and a plurality of ribs 63 which are not continuous are formed on the inner wall surface of the bottle main body 60.
The toner feeding section 61 is disposed at one end of the bottle main body 60 which end is to be arranged on a front side (hereinafter referred to as W side) of an image forming apparatus so as to be opened in a direction in which an axis of the bottle main body 60 extends and serves as an outlet for feeding toner into the bottle main body 60. An opening of the toner feeding section 61 has a diameter smaller than an inner diameter of the bottle main body 60 and is sealed by a cap 61C. The connecting section 62 is provided at an end of the bottle main body 60 which end is to be arranged on a rear side (hereinafter referred to as R side) of the image forming apparatus. The connecting section 62 has a protrusion for regulating movement in a direction perpendicular to the direction in which the axis of the bottle main body 60 extends. The protrusion is engaged with a driving shaft of a driving source, and a driving force is transmitted to the bottle main body 60 to rotate the bottle main body 60. The ribs 63 are formed on the inner wall surface of the bottle main body 60 with a predetermined angle inclined to a direction perpendicular to the direction in which the axis line of the bottle main body 60 extends so that when the bottle main body 60 is rotated, toner is transported toward the toner opening as an outlet for discharging toner.
The scraping member 70 includes a shaft section 71 and two rubbing sections 72 and 73. The shaft section 71 serves as a shaft that extends in parallel with a direction in which the axis of rotation of the bottle main body 60 extends and supports the rubbing sections 72 and 73. The rubbing sections 72 and 73 are disposed so as to be in contact with the inner wall surface of the bottle main body 60 and scrape toner attached to the inner wall surface of the bottle main body 60 when the bottle main body 60 is rotated around the axis.
In the toner bottle 50, as described above, when the bottle main body 60 is rotated, the scraping member 70 scrapes toner attached to the inner wall surface of the bottle main body 60 and the ribs 63 guide and transport toner contained in the bottle main body 60. At this time, in the toner bottle 50, since the shaft section 71 of the scraping member 70 extends in parallel with a direction in which the axis of rotation of the bottle main body 60 extends to support the rubbing sections 72 and 73, the capability of scraping attached toner is the same in the rubbing sections 72 and 73.
Therefore, when toner contained in the bottle main body 60, including toner scraped by the scraping member 70, is guided and transported by the ribs 63 to the other end of the bottle main body 60 on the K side of the image forming apparatus that is in a downstream side in a transporting direction, toner quantity is increased as advancing toward the downstream side in the transporting direction. As a result, toner is likely to be aggregated at the end of the downstream side in the transporting direction inside the bottle main body 60 and it is impossible to teed toner stably from the opening for discharging toner.